White House gatecrashers face criminal charges

Tareq and Michaele Salahi, the American couple who gatecrashed a White House
state dinner, could face criminal charges.

image made from Michaele Salahi's Facebook page shows a photo of Tareq Salahi, left, Vice President Joe Biden and Michaele Salahi, right, at the White House state dinner in Washington on Tuesday Nov. 24, 2009Photo: AP

By Alex Spillius in Washington

6:08PM GMT 27 Nov 2009

The Secret Service said it was considering a criminal investigation into how they got through a security checkpoint.

It is believed they could face charges for lying to federal agents, after gaining access to the banquet honouring Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister, without an invitation.

Once inside, they had their pictures taken with Vice President Joe Biden and Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff.

The development came as further details emerged of the couple's fall from being polo-playing socialites who mixed with British royalty to reality television hopefuls besieged by debts and financial disputes.

Mr Salahi, 41, was a successful businessman who built the Oasis Winery in Virginia into a lucrative family company. He was a founder of the Courage Cup, a charity polo event that allowed him to play and hobnob with Prince Charles, Senator John McCain, Oprah Winfrey and the actor Matt Damon.

But amid a family dispute, the property has now been repossessed, along with the couple's Maserati and Aston Martin.

The Salahis are named in at least 16 different civil suits in Fauquier County, sometimes as plaintiffs, sometimes as defendants.

Robb Levin of Fairfax, Virginia, is suing the Salahis for $15,000 relating to excess charges from his August 2005 wedding staged at the winery. He told CNN that: "There were thousands of dollars charged to my card with no explanation."

Other reports said the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services issued a consumer warning earlier this year against the "Journey for a Cure Foundation," of which the Salahis are listed as co-founders, for soliciting money from Virginians for "allegedly charitable purposes". The Fauquier-Times Democrat reported that regulators were concerned the foundation had failed to follow proper registration and paperwork requirements.

Bravo Media yesterday confirmed that it filmed Michaele Salahi, a 44-year-old former cheerleader, around Washington as she prepared for the dinner because she was a being considered for an forthcoming reality show, The Real Housewives of DC.

A company spokesman said the Salahis had informed the production company that they had been invited to the dinner for 400 guests, and that "the producers had no reason to believe otherwise".